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"The Elms," 
HYDE PARK, Vermont. 

MY Dear Madam: 

In answer to your kind request that I give you all facts In my knowledge 
which might serve to authenticate the " Narrative of the Prison Ships," which 
you propose publishing for the benefit of the "Martyis' Monument Fund," 1 
hasten to state the following points : Capt. Jabez Fitch, the writer of the 
" Narrative," was my great-grandfather. My father died when all his children 
were very small. As often happens in such cases, the heirlooms became dis- 
tributed among other branches of the family, and so in this instance this manu- 
script passed into the hands of an older member of the family, Mr. Cordilla W- 
Fitch, who resides in Morrisville, Vt. 

Jabez Fitch was born in Norwich, Conn., February 15th (O. S.), 1737. 
He entered military service when but a youth, was in two or three campaigns in 
the old French War, and held a commission in the two first campaigns of the 
Revolution. He was captured on Long island on the memorable 27th of August, 
1776, and endured an eighteen months' imprisonment on the British prison sliips, 
where he contracted a scorbutic complaint which embittered and rendered almost 
insupportable more than thirty years of his life. Besides this " Narrative " he 
kept a diary of events for forty years. Part of this journal that was kept during 
his campaigns in the Revolutionary War was sent to Washington, D. C, during 
his lifetime, to help him procure his pension, and the family have not been able 
to recover it. His constant reference to persons and places gives the diary great 
interest to those who are curious about the history of Connecticut and the early 
settlement of Vermont. Pardon me for making an extract from journal, written 
while on his second journey from Norwich to Hyde Park. It shows that Capt. 
Bissell, too, survived the severities of the British imprisonment and lived in 
Windsor, Conn. : " Friday, May 23d, 1788. — At 9 o'clock came to Bisseli's 
Ferry in Windsor, where we crossed the river and called on my old friend, 
Capt. Bissell. Could not stop, but proceeded on our way to Suffield." 

The list of grantees of the town of Hyde Park was made up largely of 
men from Norwich, Conn., among whom was Jabez Fitch, who came here with 
his three sons in 1788, and made for themselves a home in the wilderness and 
endured all the peculiar trials and hardships of the first settlers. They first pro- 
vided a temporary shelter, the next s ason had a comfortable log house erected. 
In 1808 the house, still standing, was built where Capt. Fitch died in 1812. 

Trusting that what has been so briefly reviewed may be of service in 
establishing the genuineness of the " Narrative," and therefore helping along 
your praiseworthy cause, I am. 

Very truly yours, 

VERNON D. FITCH. 

HYDE PARK, VERMONT, 

September 23d, 1897. . . . , 

To Mrs. S. V. WHITE, of Bkooklvn, N. Y., 

Chairman Monument Committee. 




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